In 2009, when Karen Winningham tested a DNA profile created from a sperm sample, the State Bureau of Investigation agent said it was a perfect match with Donald Eugene Borders' DNA.

Winningham, a DNA analyst for the SBI, testified in court Thursday that statistically the DNA could only have originated from Borders.

Borders, a resident of Cherryville, is on trial, accused of raping and murdering Margaret Tessneer nine years ago.

Winningham said another DNA sample, collected from a cigarette butt law enforcement officers said Borders had smoked, also provided a perfect DNA match with the sperm collected from Tessneer's body.

On Sept. 20, 2003, Libby Clark said she discovered her mother, lying across her bed, at her mother's Railroad Avenue home.

Police said the phone lines had been cut and the 79-year-old woman had been raped.

Her body was battered and bruised, according to an autopsy report.

For years, the case went unsolved.

Her cause of death has been listed as "undetermined" on her death certificate and in the autopsy.

Former Chief Medical Examiner Dr. John Butts testified Wednesday that he believed Tessneer was suffocated, but had been holding off on changing the cause of death pending further evidence in the case.

It wasn't until 2009, almost a decade after Tessneer's death, that Borders was charged with her murder and rape.

Court testimony Thursday detailed the process of creating the DNA match that led to his arrest.

Identifying the DNA

When pathologist Dr. Steven Tracy performed the autopsy two days after Tessneer's body was found he also collected items for a sexual assault kit, Tracy testified earlier this week.

He said the swabs collected and sealed in the kit were sent to the SBI lab for testing.

SBI Agent Russ Holley began court testimony Thursday by explaining the process he uses to identify sperm. He said at the time he did the testing in 2004, he was a serologist, or someone who studies bodily fluids.

Holley said he used a microscope to examine both the swabs and slides contained in the sexual assault kit and said both contained moderate amounts of sperm.

Objections from defense punctuated Holley's testimony.

Most were overruled by the judge.

Once the presence of sperm had been detected, Holley said a sample was sent to DNA analysts.

Agent Mark Boodee, who was an analyst at that time, testified that he went through a four-step process to extract the DNA from the sperm cell and create a profile.

Boodee said the DNA profile he created from the semen was entered into CODUS, a digital DNA database, but it did not come up with a match.

It wasn't until 2009, shortly after the Tessneer case had been reassigned to a Shelby Police detective and an SBI agent for a fresh look, that new leads developed.

Winningham said she performed a test on the cigarette butt Borders had smoked as well as a cheek swab collected from Borders.

She said both were matched against the profile created from the semen and both were a perfect match.

Qualifications

During cross-examination, Teddy questioned Boodee and Winningham about a failed certification exam in 2011.

Both said they later retook the exam and passed.

Winningham and Boodee testified that they take proficiency tests twice a year administered by an outside agency.

Boodee said the DNA lab is audited once a year and accredited.

He said all analysts have to be certified and each case the agents handle are then reviewed by another analyst and a supervisor.

Teddy also questioned about lab procedures and DNA samples that had been "overblown," including one sample Winningham analyzed from the cover of the phone box at Tessneer's home.